Announcement

In recent years, experimental methods in biomedicine have resulted in massive amounts of data. The urgent need for efficient methods of processing and understanding this data has resulted in the rapid development of a new exciting research direction - applying interdisciplinary approaches incorporating systems analysis, data mining and optimization techniques to the analysis of datasets arising in biomedical applications. Application areas include genome studies, cardiology, cancer diagnosis, neurology, etc.

Among the examples of considered datasets one can mention genome sequences, gene expression data, protein structural data, protein-protein interaction data, protein-DNA interaction data, as well as radiological data, and EEG data.

Systems analysis, data mining and optimization techniques play an important role in analyzing and integrating these large datasets, as well as in discovering the biological processes underlying the data arising in biomedical applications.

The purpose of this conference is to bring together theoreticians and practitioners representing different fields - biomedicine, engineering, computer science - in attempt to share knowledge, ideas, and techniques.

Papers presented at the conference will be considered for publication in the special issue of the Optimization Methods and Software or in the refereed volume (to be published in the "Biocomputing" book series, Kluwer Academic Publishers).